Searchers look for missing motorist

SANTA MARIA, Calif. (UPI) Divers are still trying to find the driver of a pickup truck discovered floating in a rain-swollen river that's already claimed the lives of two California Highway Patrol officers.

Search and rescue teams were combing the banks and waters of the Cuyama (``koo-YAW'-muh'') River about 12 miles east of Santa Maria today to try to find any sign of the missing motorist and determine if there was anybody else in the truck.

The truck was among four vehicles swept into the river when a 300-foot section of Highway 166 collapsed early Tuesday.

Rescuers managed to save the drivers of the downed semi-truck and Toyota Camry.

Divers recovered the bodies of CHP Officers Britt Irvine and Rick Stovall in their submerged patrol car after several hours of searching the murky waters. Crews managed to recover the car this morning and bring it to the surface, where it's expected to be analyzed.

Memorial services are pending for the two officers, who both lived in Santa Maria.

Irvine was 40 years old and had been with the CHP for nearly 15 years. Thirty-nine-year-old Stovall was a 17-year CHP veteran with a wife and two children. His father is a retired CHP officer.

The officers were responding to a call of a sinkhole when the highway was washed away in the most powerful El Nino-related storm of the year.

The storm triggered flooding, mudslides and evacuations along California's coastline and left four other people dead before it moved out of the area early Tuesday.

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